Iraq

What Soleimani’s Death Means for Middle-Eastern Christians

The Trump administration’s decision to kill Iranian general Qasem Soleimani eliminated a longtime opponent of American interests in the Middle East, but also raised questions about how the strike integrates with the United States’ support for religious minorities in the volatile region. President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have prioritized … Read more

Appease This!

On April 1, 2001, a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter collided over the South China Sea, forcing the Americans to make an emergency landing on Chinese soil. But the Chinese government said it would not release the crew until it got an apology. The Bush administration tried to find other ways to satisfy … Read more

An Open Letter to Catholics on Behalf of Ron Paul

The letter below was published by Dr. Thomas E. Woods, Jr., in 2007, but apart from the names of the alternate Republican candidates, it remains of interest today. It is reprinted with the permission of the author.   In the tradition of Walter Block’s Open Letter to the Jewish Community in Behalf of Ron Paul … Read more

Is America Losing Control?

  “Events are in the saddle and ride mankind.” In describing 2011, few clichés seem more appropriate. For in this past year, we Americans seemed to lose control of our destiny, as events seemed to be in the saddle. While President Barack Obama maneuvered skillfully to retain a fighting chance to be re-elected, the economy … Read more

Will Congress Vote on War with Iran?

  Returning from Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta dropped some jolting news. Asked by CBS’s Scott Pelley if Iran could have a nuclear weapon in 2012, Panetta replied: “It would probably be about a year before they could do it. Perhaps a little less. But one proviso, Scott, is that if they … Read more

Ron Paul Challenges His Party’s Mindless Militarism

  Reporters routinely describe Ron Paul’s foreign policy views as “isolationist” because he opposes the promiscuous use of military force. This is like calling him a recluse because he tries to avoid fistfights. The implicit assumption that violence is the only way to interact with the world reflects the oddly circumscribed nature of foreign policy … Read more

And Was the Mission Accomplished?

  For the Army and Marines who lost 4,500 dead and more than 30,000 wounded, many of them amputees, the second-longest war in U.S. history is over. America is coming home from Iraq. On May 1, 2003, on the carrier Abraham Lincoln, the huge banner behind President George W. Bush proclaimed, “Mission Accomplished!” That was … Read more

The U.S. in Iraq: What Have We Gained?

As active U.S. military involvement in Iraq draws to a close, what does the moral scorecard on this adventure look like from an American point of view? Granted that a comprehensive weighing of results will only be possible some years from now, at the moment the picture is something like this. In a perverse way, … Read more

Iran: How to Lose

  Once again, tensions between Iran and the international community are on the rise as the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, released a new report that warns of concealed attempts by Iran to produce an atomic bomb. How should one respond? The 19th-century Prussian general and philosopher Carl von Clausewitz, the … Read more

What Have Our Wars Done for You?

  Can we fight a war, kill foreign leaders, declare victory, and then leave? How about travelling the world looking for monsters to slay? Will this keep us free and safe? In recent weeks, three events occurred around the globe that have great implications for American freedom. On Oct. 20, Col. Moammar Kaddafi, the acknowledged … Read more

Henry Hyde Was Right, G.W. Bush Was Wrong

Events unfolding in the Middle East are proving that Henry Hyde was right and George Bush was wrong on the wisdom of a foreign policy focused on promoting democracy. When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared in Hyde’s House International Relations Committee on Feb. 16, 2006, she presented written testimony touting Bush’s messianic policy. “In … Read more

Obama and the Pursuit of Endless War

When historians sit down decades from now to address the events of the early 21st century, they will have no trouble explaining why Americans elected Barack Obama president. They elected him out of a firm conviction that the United States was not involved in enough wars. Problem solved. Today, American forces are fighting in four … Read more

Christians in the Middle East

Dr. Habib Malik of the Lebanese American University has been a friend for many years. Few men have such an informed and humane view of the sad, even desperate, position of Christians in the Middle East. As a Lebanese Maronite with a Harvard doctorate in intellectual history, what Dr. Malik knows comes from experience as well … Read more

‘The Night Is Advanced, The Day Is at Hand’

Imagine yourself sitting at home watching your favorite evening program on television. Suddenly the screen goes blank. An unseen announcer says: “We interrupt this program for a special announcement. We take you to the White House in Washington.” In a moment you are watching the president. Sitting in the Oval Office, he announces an international … Read more

Abortion and Unjust War

I have sometimes ridiculed the Left’s commitment to abortion as its sole core principle by referring to the “sacrament of abortion.” It stands at the center of a belief which holds that the Imperial Autonomous Self is the highest good and that, therefore, all (including the very life of another human being) must be sacrificed … Read more

Attack on Iraqi church leaves 50 dead

Horrifying news out of Iraq: Gunmen took 100 people hostage in a Syrian-Catholic church in Baghdad yesterday, and by the time Iraqi antiterrorist forces were able to regain control, as many as 37 hostages and security officers were killed and another 56 wounded. According to official estimates this morning, the death toll has risen to … Read more

Protecting Our Most Basic Right

After seven long years of war in Iraq, President Barack Obama declared last week: “It’s time to turn the page.” America‘s military role in Iraq is over, our “responsibility has been met,” and our troops are coming home. His was not a message of victory, however, but a message of “progress” — but progress toward … Read more

The Associated Press isn’t buying it…

The Associate Press isn’t falling for the administration’s “end to combat operations in Iraq” business. Tom Kent, AP standards editor, sent a memo to his colleagues yesterday afternoon making that point: [C]ombat in Iraq is not over, and we should not uncritically repeat suggestions that it is, even if they come from senior officials. The … Read more

The Lessons of Lawrence

To Begin the World All Over Again: Lawrence of Arabia from Damascus to Baghdad John Hulsman, Palgrave Macmillan, 256 pages, $27.95   Those of us who try to keep up with developments during the Iraq War find that there are many basic facts about the region that don’t get answered in the daily coverage by … Read more

A University of Dallas Alumnus Sets His Sights on Congress

At age 37 and married only a month, Kevin Calvey volunteered for deployment in Iraq. When he returned to his wife, Toni, in Oklahoma City a year later — 2008 — he restarted his private law practice but was soon alarmed by the “dire situation” of our nation. It was then that Calvey decided to … Read more

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